Hey guys, I'm back with the next chapter! Thanks for your patience with the delay and for your well wishes!

First things first, review time! Thanks so much to BooksAreMedicine (Hm...you psychic or something? ;), Brenne, Guest, OneWhoDreamz (I'm going to answer that rhetorical question because I feel like it: No, no I did not plan that XD), Aekidna (Aw, thank you!), jackandelsaforever101 (Haha yep, he's certainly grown a bit, hasn't he?), Yukomin, Serami Nefera, Moonumb, OneWhoDreamz, Scout, and InsanityOwl!

This chapter doesn't have much going on in it, but don't worry, the next one will! Hopefully I'll be able to update next week...I say that because midterms are coming up. DX I should have an update up next Saturday, but will probably have to take a break in order to get to studying...just a heads up!

With all that being said, on with the chapter!

Chapter 27: A Rather Brief Discussion

For the first half hour of traveling, Jack did not speak a word to the Guardians. He was far too lost in his thoughts, unsure of what to concentrate on and ending up giving himself a pounding headache in the process of trying to sort his questions out and make sense of them all. He visibly winced, rubbing his forehead in an attempt to quell the increasingly throbbing pain.

"Jack, are you alright?" he heard Toothiana ask him, her voice laced with concern.

"Fine," he grunted, lowering his hand. His response was nothing short of automatic at this point; he merely hoped the Guardians believed his claim.

Unfortunately, they did not.

Aster scoffed. "Sure, mate," he grumbled sarcastically. "Clutchin' yer head and cringin' really assures us that yer alright."

"Well I can't see why you would care," Jack retorted. "The only thing you need me to be 'alright' for is battle, and there's not exactly any monsters attacking us at the moment."

North gave a heavy sigh and reined in Petrov to block Zephyr's advance. When Jack gave him a suspicious glance, he explained himself. "Jack, we need to talk."

Jack snorted and crossed his arms. "Damn right we do," he said. "Though before we talk about whatever the hell you've got in mind, don't you think it would be best to discuss, oh, I don't know...what exactly we're planning to accomplish by charging directly towards the Nightmare King? What, is there some kind of...ancient weapon with the power to smite Fearlings conveniently lying in a cave somewhere along the way? Seems a little farfetched, don't you think?"

"Let the four of us worry about that, Jack," Tooth told him gently. He decided that he didn't like how she was looking at him as though he was a distressed young child. "We want to talk about you."

Jack gave a scoff, folding his arms even tighter across his chest as his crystalline eyes pierced each of the Guardian's gazes. "Fine, then," he said. "Disregard the captured children in favor of a snow sprite who wants nothing more than to be rid of your company."

"Watch yer mouth, mate," Aster growled. "If it were up ta me, we would be focusin' on them first, but these three wanna do this before it's too late ta bring it up again. Ridiculous. Though...I s'pose I can understand where they're comin' from."

"I'm flattered, truly," Jack deadpanned sarcastically. "But-and I say this with the greatest possible respect, of course-shove off. I'm not in the mood to talk about my feelings with four people who are just pretending to care about me so they can use me as their secret weapon against the Nightmare Armies."

My, Jack, aren't you cynical today? he thought to himself, a bitter expression on his face. Still…'tis most likely justified.

Though he genuinely believed what the likes of Simon, Jamie, and Laura had told him, his view towards the Guardians was still less than positive. Perhaps it was their tendency to not consider his hardships, or their being bent on taking him to help them combat Fear itself, or maybe it was the simple fact that they, the Guardians, had never protected him as a child. Whatever the reason, he ultimately could not bring himself to fully trust anything they had to say.

He knew that they tried to care, but was not able to honestly fathom that any of the four of them, even Sandy, really had his best interests in mind over their own.

And who knows? He thought silently. Once the Nightmare King has been taken care of, they might ditch me and finally leave me alone. Or possibly even kill me, though I doubt it somehow...they're too "benevolent" to kill someone they've teamed up with before, no matter how temporary said alliance is.

They boy was torn from his thoughts by Toothiana's voice. "Jack, please...just let us talk to you. It won't be for long, I promise."

Jack was silent for a long moment, mulling over his options. On one hand, he could relent and allow the Guardians to force upon him what was sure to be a sappy, heartfelt speech about how much he had grown to matter to them, which would only succeed in wasting time in the long run. On the other, he could continue to fight and tell them to leave him be, only to inevitably be worn down in the end, thus producing the same result as option A.

I suppose I might as well save myself the trouble of fighting a battle I've already lost...he thought.

"Fine," the young sprite mumbled as he ran his fingers through Zephyr's mane. "I'm listening. Do your worst, Guardians."

North nodded. "Good," he said. "Is time for talk…" The man took a deep breath in preparation of speaking. "Listen to me, Jack. It is true that, initially, we thought you would be demon. That is why we hunted you so harshly."

"I already have high hopes for this conversation," Jack deadpanned sarcastically. He was given four sharp looks from each of the Guardians, and he so quickly shut his mouth.

"Anyway…" North continued. "Is true that we thought that way. But...we were wrong. You are not demon, you are not bad. You are very good...but have had to live through bad things."

"You're welcome here with us, Jack," Tooth said softly. "We're not fools, we know you still don't like us very much, and we can understand why...but we're sorry. I know that probably means nothing to you with all you've suffered from us, but we're all truly sorry, I promise."

Sandy gave a nod and formed a few pictures over his head, which Jack was able to interpret with little trouble, due to the exposure he'd had to the golden man's method of speech. We're not asking you to like us. We're only trying to let you know that you're not alone. When he was done, Sandy floated up a little bit and elbowed Aster in his furry chest.

Aster grunted a little and gave the short Guardian a look, but let the matter drop and instead cleared his throat, studying Jack. After a moment, he finally said, "Like I told ya before, mate. I don't think it's fair that we're draggin' ya along like this. But ya've gotta understand that for the time bein', we're stuck with each other. The other three already gave me a bloody lecture on this, so now I'll pass it on ta ya: Hostility ain't gonna help anythin'." The Pooka shook his head. "There, I said it," he scoffed. "Hypocrite of the year, I am, but it'd be better for everyone if ya just toned it down on the, 'ya don't care about me so I won't care about ya' shtick. Like it or not, we're all here together, and we're gonna have ta deal with each other."

Jack was silent for a long moment, his thoughts swirling around in his head with a frantic pace he had grown accustomed to. "Very good", they say…"sorry"..."not alone"..."hostility won't help"...why are they telling me all of this? I know they're supposed to have kindness flowing through their veins in place of blood...but towards me…

He shook his head slightly. 'Tis ridiculous...they have no reason to care for me at all...still...it doesn't seem as though any one of them is lying, even Aster…

It took him a long time to figure out what to say, and even when he did speak, he was barely satisfied with his response. "...fine, then."

Aster arched an eyebrow. "Really, mate? That's it?"

"What else do you want me to say? What else is there to say? I know you're sorry, I know what you're trying to tell me, so...fine." The boy glanced around at the four of them, dark eyebrows raised. "So, is this conversation over, or…?"

The Guardians clearly had expected resistance. The young sprite figured they had assumed that he would just push them away further, or even try to run off with Zephyr and never look back. Jack, however, knew that doing so would not be worth the effort in the slightest. They would only advance on him again, or pursue him and bring him back. He had already learned that there was no escaping the Guardians of Childhood, so there was no point in trying to pretend otherwise.

'Tis depressing really, thinking about how little of a choice I have in anything anymore… Jack thought, a slight frown on his lips. Dragged along on some suicide mission to stop the damn Nightmare King...no matter how much time passes, 'tis still ridiculous.

Jack's frown deepened. Speaking of which...they never answered my question. How do we expect to defeat him? 'Tis true that he can't kill me at the moment, but Sandy said that protection is far from permanent…

To tell the truth, Jack was terrified. He didn't know how to fight, he couldn't stand up against the embodiment of Fear itself. The Guardians were far stronger, of course, but even they admitted they had no idea how to dispatch a Fearling. How was the help of one scrawny sprite going to change that fact?

The winter boy cleared his throat and spoke. "Now that all that's out of the way," he said. "Mind answering the question I asked you at the start of this little discussion? How exactly do you plan on equipping us to fight the Nightmare King? We're hardly ready as we are now, and as I said, stumbling across a magical artifact that can instantly slay him, his Nightmares, and the Fearlings doesn't seem like a likely scenario...so what are we going to do?"

Once the Guardians had all shared a series of silent glances with each other as though each of them knew exactly what the others were thinking, it was North that spoke first. "We have plan," he assured him, giving a nod to emphasize this.

"Do you?" Jack asked skeptically. "Enlighten me."

"Oh, we will, mate," said Aster. "But first...we've gotta train ya up a bit."

That's all for now! Hope you enjoyed, and I'll see you guys next time for Chapter 28!

For now, Sapphire316, out.